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Atlas Shrugged: Part III (2014)
The attempt is admirable - instead of complaining, do it better
"Atlas Shrugged Part III - Who is John Galt?" concludes John Aglialoro and Harmon Kaslov's film trilogy of Any Rand's 1947 capitalism-promoting fiction "Atlas Shrugged." The film was released this weekend at two Chicago area theaters - and it's a film America should see. As an audience member warned loudly enough for all to hear as the film's credits rolled Saturday afternoon in Naperville, "Coming soon to a country near you ..."
"Who is John Galt?" is the question that is asked in the first two parts of Atlas Shrugged, and in Part III, the question is answered. John Galt was a brilliant mind that decided his mental and physical capabilities were his, and not to be demanded or stolen by the government, society or anyone else. He sought to pull other gifted minds away from a society that sought to drain away all energies and creativity for the good of others - and it was never enough.
Galt and his like-minded colleagues abandoned the world they knew to live in a Utopian world where everyone did their part and no one was allowed to take without giving. The more the demands grew, the more regulations mounted, the less freedom, liberty and joy of living.
The novel's central character Dagny Taggert is played by actress Laura Regan - the third actress to play the part in the trilogy. Galt is played by actor Kristoffer Polaha, with more familiar faces such as Greg Germann playing James Taggert and Joaquim de Almedia playing Francisco d'Anconia.
The point of the film is to get Rand's long novel into the minds of an American society with an attention span that shortens more and more each year. The attempt is admirable and the result is that while the film itself will never compete for an Academy Award, it will stir interest in reading "Atlas Shrugged" and learning more about capitalism, entrepreneurship and independence.
Ayn Rand fans will complain about what the film left out and its low budget cast - and they will have a valid point. But instead of complaining about what and how someone else presented the classic to the world, why not respond with the lesson Rand would teach instead of griping. Rand would say, "Shut up and do it better."
The film does make the point that humans are to not depend on others to meet their needs, but to live independent of others: "I swear by my life and my love of it that I will never live for the sake of another man, nor ask another man to live for mine."
But libertarian purists need to answer a huge, open question their asserting independence philosophy demands: What do you do with people that are unable to produce? What about the elderly, the severely handicapped or disabled? How do you value them when in Rand terms, they are not "producers," but rather "takers."
Rand's Galt tells his colleagues: "Pride is the recognition of the fact that you are your own highest value and, like all of man's values, it has to be earned. His own happiness is man's only moral purpose, but only his own virtue can achieve it
Life is the reward of virtue- and happiness is the goal and the reward of life." And finally, Galt says that to turn things around, the current setting had to be wiped away. For example, when New York's skyscrapers would go black, that would not be the end, but the new beginning.
Watch the other two Atlas Shrugged films on Netflix or Amazon.com, and finish the story by seeing "Atlas Shrugged III: Who is John Galt?"
Rand's philosophy swings the pendulum back away from today's "take from others" economy - but way too far in the opposite direction. Hopefully, and sooner rather than later, a reasonable free, productive and charitable middle ground will rise among Americans once again.